History Film / MollysGame

* ToughLove: Larry was ''very'' hard on Molly growing up, and it affects her all the way to adulthood. However, it's worthwhile noting that as much as she resents her father for being tough on her, she's also grateful for it. She tells Charlie about a girl she knew who was 22 years old and ended up spending a night with someone in exchange for a Chanel bag she wanted, and tells Charlie to double the amount of additional homework he assigns to his daughter, Stella.

* ToughLove: Larry was ''very'' hard on Molly growing up, and it affects her all the way to adulthood. However, it's worthwhile noting that as much as she resents her father for being tough on her, she was also grateful for it. She tells Charlie about a girl she knew who was 22 years old and ended up spending a night with someone in exchange for a Chanel bag she wanted, and tells Charlie to double the amount of additional homework he assigns to his daughter, Stella.

* ToughLove: Larry was ''very'' hard on Molly growing up, and it affects her all the way to adulthood.

--> '''Mr Bloom (paraphrased)''': One of my sons is an Olympic champion, my other son is a heart surgeon at a top hospital, and my daughter founded a multi-million dollar business.

->'''Douglas''': There's a poem...a famous...uh...a poem about thoughts left unexpressed. "Two roads emerged from the woods. Do they explode? I dunno." You like poetry?\\
'''Molly''': [[SarcasmMode I did until a second ago.]]

* {{Fanservice}}: Most of Molly's attire is quite revealing, a required part of the world she was involved in and discussed as part of the story (at her first poker night, she wore a modest $85 department store dress). This continued even after she stopped handling poker nights; at her arraignment, Charlie even asks if she is trying to promote a "Creator/{{Cinemax}} version" of herself.

* FreudWasRight: Discussed, along with a subversion of AllPsychologyIsFreudian and FreudianExcuse. Larry is a college psychologist and Molly starts a meaningless argument over Freud's worth as a psychologist. It quickly turns toward personal attacks about the difference between not liking men or not liking dicks. Near the end of the story, Larry accuses her of having a stigma against being dominated by men, which he argues against, but he later confesses it was just to rile her up so that he could make his real point.

* HollywoodHealing: Averted. [[spoiler:Molly is attacked by a mob enforcer and beaten up pretty badly. Going to the ER would attract police attention, and after cleaning up, she says she waited several weeks in her apartment before her injuries and bruises faded enough that she could cover it up with makeup and go outside again.]]

* IllegalGamblingDen: Molly Bloom started organizing illegal poker games after her skiing career flounder because of her CareerEndingInjury.

* TheLongList: A legally mandated list of 87 steps were required to be asked by the judge [[spoiler:when Molly is set on pleading guilty]], among them including any recent drug use.

* NamedLikeMyName: One of the reasons why the government assumed Molly was more involved in TheMafiya was [[spoiler:references in their text messages saying "get molly" or "we need molly". 'molly' is a street name for the drug ecstasy, not Molly Bloom]].

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Player X is written as a {{composite|Character}} of infamous poker players in Hollywood, specifically Creator/BenAffleck, Creator/LeonardoDiCaprio, Creator/TobeyMaguire, and others. Ironically he's played by the very famous celebrity Creator/MichaelCera, who the audience is initially led to believe was playing ''himself''.

* PapaWolf: Larry tells Molly near the end that he's going to hire someone to kill the people who assaulted her in her apartment.

* PerfectlyCromulentWord: Charlie is reading Molly's book and comments that 'verticality' is not a real word. Molly insists that it is and ends up emailing him a link to it in the American dictionary.

* PrecisionFStrike: At the beginning, while we see the skiing tournament where Molly would receive her CareerEndingInjury, she tells us the story of a survey where people were asked what they thought was the worst thing something could happen to them while playing competitive sports, and one person answered finishing fourth at the Olympics. At the end of the opening segment, Molly comes back to this answer, and adds, "I wanted to say to the person who answered that the worst thing that could happen in sports was fourth place at the Olympics - seriously? Fuck you."

* SportsDad: Larry, again, though it's downplayed by Molly when she asks Charlie, "You know how many Olympic gold medal winners had overbearing fathers?", and then answers, "[[AllOfThem All of them]]." That doesn't make her resent Larry any less.

* AWorldHalfFull: Molly's father decides to look on the bright side when comparing his childrens' achievements:

* ComicallyMissingThePoint: Molly tells Douglas the story of Circe from Myth/ClassicalMythology, how she would serve men lavish feats and then transform them into animals, when she tries to get him to understand that she is using his addictions and weaknesses for her own gain. When Douglas tries to assure her that ''he'' would never do anything like that ''to her'' she has to get up and walk away.

-->'''Charlie:''' Would you like a glass of water?
-->'''Molly:''' I'd like a glass of bourbon.

* NamesTheSame:
** InUniverse: Douglas assumes that Molly is Irish because she shares a name with a character from ''Literature/{{Ulysses}}''.
** One of the reasons why the government assumed Molly was more involved in TheMafiya was [[spoiler:references in their text messages saying "get molly" or "we need molly". 'molly' is a street name for the drug ecstasy, not Molly Bloom]].

* HonorBeforeReason: Charlie tells Molly that if she does a deal with the government and names names, then she will get her money back, and will not go to jail where she might get raped by the guards. She refuses, because this will ruin the lives of the men she names, and she will lose her good name, which is the only thing she has left. He replies that none of the people that she wants to protect are lifting a finger to help ''her''.

* PapaWolf: Larry tells Molly near the end that he sent someone to hunt down the people who assaulted her in her apartment.

* HardBoiledDetective: A RunningGag has Molly saying that the first sentence Douglas says to her each night sounds like the first sentence of a hardboiled detective novel.

* TheMafiya: The reason the FBI is so determined to nail Molly even after she's already been driven out of the poker business. Russian organized crime members began playing at her games, and the FBI thinks the games became part of their overall criminal schemes. [[spoiler:It turned out that the Russian gangsters playing at her games were only there for the sake of playing, not trying to muscle in or take over. The wiretaps referring to "Molly" that had the FBI agents so excited were talking about the party drug ecstasy, which is also known as 'molly'.]]

* MinorCrimeRevealsMajorPlot: Molly moves from California to New York, and asks a New York lawyer if it's legal to run high-stakes poker games. He tells her yes, subject to certain conditions, but adds "Don't break the law while you're breaking the law." It will be easier for her to get away with running an illegal poker game if she isn't dealing drugs or prostitutes on the side.

* NamesTheSame: InUniverse: Douglas assumes that Molly is Irish because she shares a name with a character from ''Literature/{{Ulysses}}''
** Also, apparently one of the reasons why the government assumed Molly was more involved in TheMafiya was [[spoiler:references in their text messages saying "get molly" or "we need molly", referring to the drug ecstasy, not Molly Bloom]].

* ParentsAsPeople: Larry Bloom was [[StageMom hard on her]] and Molly was difficult in return, which was not helped by [[YourCheatingHeart Larry's affairs]]. They reconcile near the end of the story, as Larry confesses that she saw one of his earlier affairs before she understood what it meant and before it became known in the family, and that personal guilt made him act differently towards her.

* YourCheatingHeart: Larry had an affair while still married to Molly's mother, and much of her resentment comes from that.

* NamesTheSame: Douglas assumes that Molly is Irish because she shares a name with a character from ''Literature/{{Ulysses}}''

-->'''Larry:''' Do you?

* AffablyEvil: Shelly, who uses his art gallery to launder money for TheMafiya, is an almost {{Adorkable}} enthusiastic young man who's very apologetic about not having any cash the first time he comes to Molly's poker game, but cheerfully offers up a $7 million dollar Monet painting as collateral. Molly is a little taken aback.

* PrecisionFStrike: At the beginning, while we see the skiing tournament where Molly would receive her CareerEndingInjury, she tells us the story of a survey where people were asked what they thought was the worst thing something could happen to them while playing competitive sports, and one person answered finishing fourth at the Olympics. At the end of her story, Molly comes back to this answer, and adds, "I wanted to say to the person who answered that the worst thing that could happen in sports was fourth place at the Olympics - seriously? Fuck you."